I have hundreds of feeds that I follow everyday and I don’t like the slow update frequency of many online feed readers, such as Bloglines. On my journey for finding the best feed reader I came across software like FeedDemon and Flock but neither felt like it was what I wanted. I eventually came across GreatNews which is currently being offered for free because it is in Beta testing.

I love the newspaper style reading with the two-columns and it does just that! You can also customize the look using custom CSS templates or you can use one of the built-in templates. I like the default style the best but they also have a style to make it look like the Sage RSS Reader for Firefox. One of the default templates is sure to please you.

It isn’t just about the looks…we need functionality! Boy does GreatNews have that! I’m able to setup a keyword watch for articles that contain “Google” in them and it will highlight them in yellow for me. If you are a Bloglines user then you can setup GreatNews to synchronize with your account so that you have a great news reader at home but you can still read your news wherever you are. Let’s not forget about the built-in tabbed browser which makes it easy to open the links without switching between the feed reader and a browser! If you have questions about the software then check out the very activeforums where you can find most of your answers. They haven’t determined how they will charge for the software when it gets released, but they are pondering the thought of having a free version and a professional version. The professional version would support things like podcasts but will cost around $30. However, there is no need to think about dollar signs now because you can test it out for free!